Story+1978-08-04+Charleston,+WV

“Charleston (chuckles)...how you doing tonight? (crowd cheers) that’s good...one, give me some echo on the microphone, Bobby, one, two...long time, no see...and, uh, Big Man, are you ready? alright...I just wanted to tell you that, uh...All of my love, all of my kissing, you don’t know what you’ve been missing...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Oh Boy”**

“What are you doing down here? (crowd cheers) BAM!...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Spirit in the Night”**

“Hey!…hey…hey, the natives are friendly out there tonight (chuckles)…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, after “Spirit in the Night”**

“Yeah, we got…(chuckles) we got a brand, a pretty brand new album, it’s been out about two months…it’s called Darkness on the Edge of Town…this is “Darkness on the Edge of Town”…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Darkness on the Edge of Town”**

“Thank you…we broke something up here...(chuckles)...anyway, we’re gonna get that together – I grew up in this town of about ten thousand people...yeah (chuckles) and, uh...my father, I remember I used to see my father twice during the day, I used to come in at night...and, uh...he’d be sitting in the dark at the kitchen table, I could see the light of his cigarette butt, sometimes he’d call me to come back and sit down with him...sometimes I’d just go up to bed, then I’d, in the morning I’d hear him...my bedroom was right out over the backyard and, uh...I’d hear him getting up at six am, he’d go out to the backyard, he used to buy these hundred dollar junkers, these cars and he’d be popping the hood, six am, laying on the cold ground trying to get it started...and him and his father worked in this factory, this plastics’ factory in town and I ain’t (chuckles) and, uh...this is a song I wrote for him...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Factory”**

“Gotta prove it all night…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Prove It All Night”**

“Max Weinberg on the drums on that one…Big Man on the saxophone…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, after “Prove It All Night”**

“Here’s for all the Charleston…West Virginia car boys here, “Racing in the Street”…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Racing in the Street”**

"//Well, I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk// - Duane Eddy sound (plays the guitar part)..."
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, middle of "Thunder Road"**

“Big Man Clarence Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Steve Van Zandt on the guitar (crowd cheers) Max Weinberg on the drums, Garry Tallent on the bass, Dan Federici on the organ – the E Street Band (crowd cheers)…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, after “Jungleland”**

“(Chuckles) Hey…(?)…is everybody ready? alright…alright, are you ready for round two? (crowd cheers) and in this corner, the master of disaster, weighing in at 260 pounds, the Big Man Clarence Clemons…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Paradise by the C”**

“Winner…in the minute and a half of the first round…by a knockout (chuckles)…oh, get the squeeze box, D, yeah…oh, shit, goddammit, we’re warming up (chuckles) alright, this is, uh…gonna take you on …on a scenic tour of Asbury Park here (crowd cheers) I spent, I was in, Fourth of July I was in L.A...and it’s, it’s nutty out there, they sell, I guess they sell, they sell fireworks down here like ssshh ssshh, like that right over the counter? No?...we were just in South Carolina...they’ve got ‘em, like, you know, at the drugstore, all over the place (chuckles)...but, uh...out there they sell ‘em too, I guess, anyway, back in Asbury Park they do not but, uh...anyway, this is, uh...for all the dislocated Jersey Shore people (chuckles)...here’s “Fourth of July, Asbury Park”...” 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Sherry Darling” “Oh-oh, alright, we’ve got an experiment coming up...it’s called “Me trying to get my guitar in tune” (chuckles) (tunes his guitar) oh, perfect (chuckles)...this was a song that we recorded live in the studio about two years ago, the beginning of the summer and it was originally gonna be on the “Darkness”...but it was too weird so we left it off (chuckles)...and it was gonna be, we’re gonna release it as a single for summertime, it’s sort of a summer song...so we’re gonna give it a try but like the idea, see what it was supposed to...was there’s a whole...there’s a whole bracket of music, this is not real well-known, but it was known as Fraternity Rock...now what (chuckles) now, what that used to be, I don’t know if they still got it any more but it used to be like “Louie Louie,” used to be “Farmer John” by the Premiers, used to be, uh, what else?... “Double Shot of My Baby’s Love” by the Swinging Medallions…oh shit, I’m an old man up here tonight (laughs) no recognition for these songs, it’s like (chuckles) and it used to be anything that was loud, raucous and like, sounded like you’d just had like about ten too many beers, you know, it was like (chuckles) so that’s what this song was supposed to be and that’s why what we gotta do, we gotta start this song off with party noises, are you ready? (crowd cheers) alright, here we go, alright, party noises one time, here we go...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Sandy” (following “Paradise by the C”)**

“(Chuckles) Fraternity Rock right there (coughs) right there (chuckles) shit…(tests his guitar) oh, I’m out of tune…alright…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, after “Sherry Darling”**

“This next song…should have been called…”I Was a Teenage Werewolf”…one…(Roy starts playing)…there I was...13 years old...I got sent home from school that day for pissing in my desk...I don’t know why I used to do those things...anyway...Sisters called my parents and told my mother that I needed psychiatric attention...so I went down to this doctor in town...and he said “Son...how did you get this way?”...I said “Doc...I’m glad you asked me that question ...see, in my house...other kids used to get in trouble for coming in late but old man used to yell at me for coming in early...“What are you doing home soon? Can’t you stay out a little longer”...“Ok”…so one night...I said “Doc, one night...I was standing out there on the street...looked up...there was a full moon...hair started growing all over my face...a guitar popped out of my left side...my knees began to shake...and for just one moment...I stood stone-like at midnight… (...) I remember when I was about ten years old...me and Steve used to sit on my front porch...and we really, we didn’t know who Clarence was at the time, you know, used to be just this kid who’d come riding by with no hands, on the bicycle, playing a saxophone ...we finally got to know him a little bit and one night...I lived next-door...there was a field over here and right on the other side of the field, there was the nuns’ convent and there was the church and right behind that was the rectory...so they had me surrounded, right (chuckles)...and not only did they have me surrounded but they had me and my folks scared shitless (chuckles) it’s funny, I could never figure out, like, you know, the only people that the nuns could intimidate better than, like, an eight-year-old kid was my old man in those days (chuckles) you know, he used to be scared of them Sisters, you know, we used to run from them at night...and across the street there was this field and it was full of like tomatoes and stuff, there was this woman that used to grow ‘em, lived in a house there and what we’d do we’d wait till they got rotten and we’d get a bunch of us over there and we’d have these tomato fights, you know, pssh, pssh, pssh, going back and forth...you know, little things that make life worth living, it’s like (chuckles) it’s like (chuckles) it’s like, anyway, one night it was me and Steve and Clarence and we were sitting on the porch...and we see something, like this light start hovering around the moon (strange guitar sounds) there were all these weird noises (more strange guitar sounds) and something started to settle down in the field right across the street...we couldn’t see it, it was just this big glowing light...so we looked at each other...we didn’t, we weren’t sure what it was...but we knew whatever it was, it was gonna get the hell beat out of it with some tomatoes (chuckles)...so we walk across the street real slow...I had to go first...you’re the Boss, you gotta take the big responsibilities, it’s like (chuckles) so I’m going first...I got a tomato in one hand...ready to let this thing have it... and just in case I’m wrong, I got my rosary beads in the other (chuckles) I wanna be covered, I don’t wanna take no chances, you know (chuckles) suppose they’re right, it’s like, it’s like (chuckles) so (chuckles) anyway...we get over there...and the door slides down on this thing...and out steps this thing...what do you think it looked like?...ugly, right (chuckles) it’s like (chuckles) and like we tried talking to it for a few minutes...it didn’t say nothing...then we tried to steal the hubcaps off the flying saucer (chuckles) they didn’t have any, it’s like (chuckles) we didn’t know what to do, the thing took off...and on the ground there was this little note...we brought it back to the house...and it wasn’t until years later...many years...I’m making this up as I go along here, it’s like (chuckles) it wasn’t until many years later...that when we put it on the record player, played it backwards and held a mirror up to it (chuckles) we could see that the message (chuckles) that he was trying to get to us was just three words...and it was “Let it rock”...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Growin´ Up”**

“Hello, baby...hello, little girl, it’s good to have you back again... and my you’re looking fine...it really doesn’t seem like such a long, long time...but I remember you...baby, I remember you...standing on the corner...of Richmond Avenue with your hair done all up high and the look in your eye for every boy that’s passing you by...and I swore that I would drive, baby, back then...I swore I’d drive all night...baby, I’d drive all night...I swore I’d drive all night... anytime, anyplace, anywhere...just to buy you some shoes...and to taste your tender charms...to have you hold me in your arms...for just one kiss...for just one kiss...and a look from your sad eyes… how they cried...we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out...until your tears run dry...but it’s no good... me, baby, I can’t...me, I can’t cry any more...baby, I can’t cry any more...but like a fool I thought that I could stop...I thought that I could stop your crying...I thought that I could stop your crying...I thought that I could stop your crying...but I didn’t know...that baby’d been lying...baby’d been lying...you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies...you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies...and you knew I’d buy ‘em...and you knew I’d buy ‘em...you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies...and we stood in the rain, we stood in the wind and you could tell such pretty lies...you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies...could tell such pretty lies...and now you’re back...baby, now you’re back...well, baby, now you’re back...well, I’m back too...and I’ve been out...and I’ve seen some things...about you...I’ve seen some things...about me, about you, look into my face...I want you...to look into my face...I want you...´cause girl, we’ve got to stop, girl, it’s time to stop, baby, it’s time to stop...it’s time to stop...to stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP!...”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, middle of “Backstreets”**

“Roy Bittan on the piano…Max Weinberg on the drums…wherever you are…Rosie, come out tonight… (…) Let’s hear it little bit on the bass…(Garry plays) bring it down (Garry goes on playing) on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) little bit on the piano (Roy plays) on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) little bit on the guitar (Steve plays) on the guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt (crowd cheers) little bit on the organ (Dan plays) Dan Federici on the organ (crowd cheers) and last but not least king of the world…master of the universe…on the saxophone, the Big Man Clarence Clemons (band goes into a snippet of “Macho Man”)…” [Either Bruce forgot Max or his intro is missing from the source tape.]
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Rosalita”**

“The Big Man (crowd cheers) the E Street Band! (crowd cheers)…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, after “Rosalita”**

“I’d like to thank everybody for coming down to the show (crowd cheers) let you know…we haven’t been down here too much and I wanna let you know that we really appreciate it, I’d like to thank youse for supporting the band over the past two or three years when we’ve been having some hard times so thank you very much …coming at you – one, two…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Born to Run”**

“Can you stand one more? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you really sure now? I mean no fooling around (chuckles) (crowd cheers)(feedback from Bruce’s guitar) goddamn, my guitar’s going crazy!...(crowd cheers) what? (crowd cheers) I can’t hear you (crowd cheers)…”
 * 04.08.78 Charleston, WV, intro to “Quarter to Three”**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//